Main attributes:
Desire, Sensory Enjoyment, Sensual Pleasure, Physical Comfort, Fear, Temptations, Fickleness, Jealousy, Smallness and Pettiness.
Lower vital consciousness is just above the physical consciousness, it is closer to our animal past and it is driven primarily by smaller movements of life-desire and life-reactions. It is tied to the senses and thus to sensory enjoyment, pleasure and physical comfort. It seeks to play with sensations but it has a sense of smallness and with it comes fear, pettiness, small likings, dislikings, small ambitions, little wishes of all kinds. It is impulsive and fickle and likes change for the sake of change. Food desire, sexual desire, lust and greed are rooted in the lower vital. Since it is close to the physical consciousness it mechanises desire movements and gets entrenched in the physical habitual movements causing addictions and cravings. Its seat is in the region of the abdomen. It is the state of consciousness that everyone encounters almost daily.
Examples
- Consumerism thrives on stimulating the lower vital as it is the consumer in us, the enjoyer of the objects of desire.
- Marketing advertisements largely target the lower vital as it is the easiest part to stimulate and animate people.
- The shopping malls and casinos of the world are the worlds of desire and temptation to which everyone is prone to succumb.
- Pay scales and perks, material comforts and pleasures and tempting discounts are some of the means by which the world thrive on animating the lower vital.
- When an individual relates to a group or to one another from the lower vital, the bond will be of short term engagement as the members are likely to move on to whoever fulfils the lower vital desires. Groups held together by the lower vital force are of temporary affiliations that wither away once the objects of desire are withdrawn.
- Individuals who move from one organisation to another without loyalty or commitment, in search of better financial and material rewards are largely driven by the lower vital impulsions.
Chief difficulties with the lower vital is that on one hand it colours and distorts reason above, and on the other hand it is not easy to change its intrusions as the lower vital is very close to the physical through its nervous currents. Nevertheless change one must if our power of reason is to be rescued so that reason can be put to serve greater goals. The lower vital can also be a good alley when it comes to mobilizing the lazy physical consciousness from its torpor in habits.
Refinement of sensations through the power of aesthesis supported by reason and equanimity is a common route followed in making the lower vital a channel for enjoyments of the senses without the stain of desire and resultant addictions. It is still a delight that is not self existent, but a delight that comes into existence only in relation with external objects of sensations that are enjoyable. To entirely overcome the addiction to the senses as a means for enjoyment one must move inward and establish in the calm self existent delight of the psychic being within and use senses only as a means of receiving impressions of the delight of being flowing in from all sides.
- The lower vital consciousness is concerned with sensational desire and sensual self-gratification. It seeks sensual pleasure.
- Food desire, sexual desire, small likings, dislikings, small selfishness, vanity, quarrels, love of praise, anger at blame, resistances and revolts over small matters, small egoisms, small ambitions, little wishes of all kinds, all physical sensations, hungers, cravings, satisfactions, lust, greed of all kinds, vanity, petty anger, envy, jealousy, are its ordinary expressions.
- It takes a mean and petty pleasure in picking out the faults of others, which is made up of the smaller movements of human life-desire and life-reactions.